As we talked about last time, the key to building lasting relationships with your customers is providing excellent customer service, and consistently meeting these standards will help you do just that.

• Never interrupt: This one should be obvious but it’s worth a gentle reminder. Whatever the customer has to say is more important than anything you have to say as a salesperson. They may or may not know what they want and if you are willing to listen, they will tell you. They may even tell you valuable information that will help you create more of a person-to-person relationship revealing personal information. Cutting them off or interrupting them will lead to misunderstandings and missed sales. In addition to the possibility of losing a sale, it’s just rude and not good business. The next sale will be there, take the time to listen and never interrupt your customers.
• No fast talking: We’ve all heard the stereotype about salespeople being fast talkers, right? Well, that’s a fast way to lose a sale. It’s easy to gloss over key words or key points when you give the same presentation over and over again but the thing to remember is this, that customer in front of you is hearing the presentation for the first time. If a customer feels as if they are not being heard or their needs are being ignored, they are just going to walk away. Every customer deserves your full attention and your absolute best effort. Remember not every customer has the same level of knowledge about your products, it’s up to you to make sure they are comfortable.
• Sell with enthusiasm: The level of enthusiasm that you choose to sell your products with has a direct connection to your success. While you may be selling the same product for the 50th time this week, your customer is potentially buying it for the first time and your level of enthusiasm is going to have a significant impact on the customer. Just because you love a particular item doesn’t mean your customer is going to and vice versus.

We are almost done; we will take a look at the final three customer service standards next time. As always, remember that our goal with these standards is not to sell to one customer one time. It’s to sell to the same customer multiple times and you do that by building relationships through these standards.

FINAO - Brad Huisken